Last Thursday, I went to see the art exhibition of Abbott Miller at Kean University. The exhibition is titled "SideShow" and reflects on the changed political and social climate in the United States.
This is a colorful exhibition that forces you to think and look closely to the paintings in front of you. If you are around the area, I suggest you go and see this short but thought provoking exhibition.

The exhibition is located in the Carl Berger Gallery, Center for Academic Success (CAS) building at Kean University.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year is filled with many blessings and love.

I know that everyone is writing about their New Year's resolution but I thought I keep it simple and in a monthly base, because it's just easier that way. So, Here is my list of goals that I hope I get to accomplish for this month. Some of the goals are more long-term and will take a while but its good to start earlier than later.

Do more volunteer work

I have always loved doing volunteering work and used to do it while I was in high school, but not so much anymore. I think that giving back to the community is always a great way to help out, get experiences, and grow. You get to meet so many people, all from a different path in life and it helps you see the world differently and from multiple perspectives.

Image from: Pinterest/SwoBoard

Find a job

As embarrassing as this might sound, I have never had a real job and this have had its disadvantage and advantage. The advantage, I have had the opportunity of focusing on my studies without worrying about financial duties and for this, I have been blessed with a family that has supported me in everything that I need it. The disadvantage is that I haven't had experience in a professional environment and its demands, and this I believe has only hurt me professionally and personally. Also, I need to become financially independent from my parents and begin to pay for my own necessities.

Exercise & Eat healthier

This is a constant battle for me and something that I need to urgently work on. It's not about been skinny but about been healthy and happy with myself and body. I believe that the way I look has affected me one way or another, as much as I dislike to admit but that's how it is. And by setting goals every month about my weight and eating habits, I will become a much happier and comfortable in my own body.

Grow spiritually & mentally

What I mean by this to find who am I and to be comfortable with myself. 2016 was in one way or another a challenging year for me and a learning one as well. I want to get closer to God and learn how to love myself more, in order for me to love others because you can't do both at the same time. Life sometimes is hard and(at least me) always want to do everything myself and stress myself out when there is not need for it. How am I going to do this? By talking more to God, having a conversation with Him and just letting go of ways of thinking and doing, and by being a little selfish and taking care of myself.

Apply to Grad school

I will graduate from college soon and my next stop is Grad school. As stressful and hard as Grad school can be with the GRE, personal essays, letter of recommendation, and choosing the universities you want to go to, it is something that I want to do. I want to expand my knowledge in other areas and hopefully be able to help others by taking this hard journey.

Explore more

I live 20 minutes away from New York City and I don't explore it as much as I would like to, and mostly because I don't have as much motivation to do things outside of my comfort circle and that is why I want to change that one step at a time. I'm already making a list of places I want to visit and once I have visited them, I will share it with all of you (maybe it will be of helped).

Image from: Society6

Create better content for this blog and maybe even create videos on Youtube

I want to create more content and with better quality. 2016 was a get-used-to phase and I hope that for this year, I can share better things here as well as, making videos of the journeys I hope to take during this month. Hopefully, a lot of you will be interested enough to come along with me on this journey.

Make friends

I used to have amazing friends but as I have moved, I lost contact and the older I get the harder it has been for me to make new friends. As lame as it sounds, I don't have friends, and that is the sad truth. I have classmates but not friends whom you can call at night and talk about things that don't make sense, friends who you can be yourself with and not act as if you were someone else. This is going to be a long-term goal and I hope that by the end of 2017 I get to meet great individuals and call them friends.

I have always had a journal but I have never been serious about it and that is something that I want to change. I want to challenge myself to make an everyday entry on my journal, something that has interested me and I see a lot on Instagram are "Art Journals" and I think the format will fit me since I sometimes don't want to just write but doodle and paste things.

I used to read lots of books before and it is one of the habits I loved the most. So, for January, I want to read at least two books and share it here with you by letting you know my opinions. I'm not sure what I will like to read about but if any of you have recommendations, leave them in the comments!

I hope I get to complete these goals and you get to complete your goals as well. Have a great day everyone!

For the final activity, the children created self-portraits of themselves using leaves. I decided to use Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert again for this activity and focused on the part of creating a self-portrait. An anchor chart describing what "self-portrait" meant was created and photographs of painters who have created portraits of themselves such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Frida Kahlo were shown to the children and we discuss how they were alike and how they were different. This was part of a lesson, I created for the children during the week with the purpose of using as an extension to the final activity of this project. And, so the journey of creating their self-portrait began, the only catch was that instead of using paint, they were going to use leaves!

" I use the little leaves (Elm leaf) to make my hair and the little blue rocks to make my eyes.

I really like this, Ms. Flores, can I make one more?"- D

"I'm wearing sunglasses"-M

"I'm sleeping, shuuu"-N

"This is my cool face; you see the eyebrows"-N

I really enjoyed doing this project with the children. I was able to have more one-on-one time with them and learned lots about them. Although its a lot of work and sometimes it was a let down because I had to change things, it was a learning experience and like I have said before it is always great to learn how to let go. This project is something that I will encourage all teachers out there to do with your class, it will be a lot of work but it will end up been the most rewarding thing for both you and the students.

For our fourth activity, I wanted the children to learn the names of the leaves we used from our "creating with leaves" activity. We discussed some of the names of the different leaves shown on the book, Leaf Man, but didn't get into detail due to the time restriction. I thought that the children wouldn't be too interested in knowing the names but some of the children noticed the difference between some of the leaves provided for the activity and were referencing back to the book. Thus, I decided to expand this knowledge for our fourth activity by creating our own leaves using playdough as our main material.

For this activity, I used Why Do Leaves Change Color? as a reference book. I placed different leaves on the table and ask the children to tell me the differences they see on the leaves.
"This one has pointing things, like fingers! Let me count them... yeah, it has five fingers just like me."-R
"Yes, it does have five blades and they look like fingers. This leaf is a maple leaf"- Me
"Some are yellow and red but this one is kind of brown"- L
"That us an Elm leaf"-Me

The children continue to compare the different leaves we had and their responses were added to our web map. I added a small poster with pictures of some of the leaves we had and their names for the children to have as a reference. This led us to our activity, the children choose the leaf that they liked the most and made a 3-dimensional version of it using playdough.

2016 is coming to an end... Although signs were given of the ending of a year that was full of ups and downs, for some strange reason it feels like it just crept on me. Time is something that I had always dislike because you don't notice it until you look back and realize that the memories, friends, moments have become fuzzier and hard to remember. Places, people, moments that you once cherished with all your soul are far away or gone and there is nothing to do, there is only the famous phrase of "move on" but move on from what? from what makes who you are? what has shaped you one way or another, how can you move on from that? when it will always be there.

This year, I lost my great-grandmother and it changed everything for me. She was 95 years old and lived enough to see many changes in this world. She was an amazing storyteller and always full of life, an inspiration. As the days go by, those memories with her get fuzzier and interlock with others and at times it feels like I'm telling a story rather than recalling memories. That's what time does to you, everything becomes dreams from a far away life.

Thoughts that have come to me this morning that I thought I should post here. This year has been a learning experience, just like the others but this year I have come to realize the impact that our decisions, words, actions have on others. I wouldn't say that I am a selfish individual but some of my actions were selfish one way or another. Heck! the world has been so selfish this year and cruel at times. Our actions as minimal as we see them impact so much and the decisions we take for ourselves and others can either be great or damaging. I don't watch the news like I used to before because every time I put it on- pain, suffering, and death creeps out of it- not stopping ever, it's just one after the other and yes there has been great news, discovery, moments and I don't want to sound depressing or judgemental but it does get to you and the questioning begins- why is this happening? Why can't we see how greedy and unfair the system that we have created is, and how it has affected millions of life for years, decade, centuries! Can we really change things? Is it too late for us human beings to see the damage that we have caused for our brothers and sisters and the entire world- where do we go from here? And what can I do to make it better? That is all that I wish for 2017, for me and all of us to learn how to appreciate one another, our differences and similarities- to love and be loved and to give back to our communities and the world.